"A Heart for Africa" (Judith Froehlich)

To write a report about my life and work in Kenya is not an easy task, indeed. Kenya 좻 or at least its capital city Nairobi 좻 is full of contrasts and unanswered questions so that I am constantly challenged, surprised, astonished and have to look for answers. On the one hand there are a couple of things which can be a bit tiresome for a European: regular power black-outs, rather monotonous (and way too much cooked) food, crazy Matatu-drivers(1), visible corruption, the belief (even among people with a college degree) in witchcraft and bad spirits, a way to deal with the disposal of waste which I think is rather irresponsible 좻 but above all the fact that as a ¨Mzungu〃(2) one is a target of attention nearly everywhere and at all times: people in the streets look at you, shout at you and often they seem to think that you are somehow rich. On the other hand there are those things which I admire and from which I am ready and willing to learn: I am not so much talking about the beautiful landscape, the deep spirituality of the people or their impressive ties with nature and tradition. I am much more aiming at such admirable virtues as calmness of mind, joy, generosity and true hospitality 좻 things we often lack back in Europe.

Thanks to the openness of Kenyans, it is not difficult to get in touch with them and meet people. On the contrary: sometimes there are even too many people who would like to meet me, talk to me and invite me to their homes or even up-country(3). Thus, I sometimes have to think twice with whom I want to spend the limited time I have. It is probably not very surprising that for a white lady it is easier to meet Kenyan men then women 꺔. No more surprising might be the fact that one regularly clashes with Kenyan friends and acquaintances mentality-wise. However, for me as a German there is no difference between Kenya and other countries where I spent a longer time in the past when it comes to one thing: I have found 좻 and am still finding 좻 close friends here, too.

They are friends with whom I can enjoy the numerous free time activities Kenya has to offer: the Indian Ocean in Mombasa, the rain forest in Kakamega, the famous safaris all over the country, a picnic on the shores of one of the many lakes or a couple of quiet and spiritual days on the ¨African Bible on the ground〃 in Nanyuki just next to Mount Kenya. Besides, Nairobi as East Africa…s biggest and most modern city holds plenty of things to do for ‥city people… 좻 and as an outspoken cinema-lover, I am especially happy about the seven Nairobi cinemas with at least two screens, which I frequent regularly 꺔.

However, there is also a problem with all these fabulous free time activities 좻 a problem which with my friends back home in Germany I never quite realized or experienced as I do here in Kenya now: leisure time activities cost (at least in most cases) not only time but also money. And it is this money which many of my Kenyan friends do not have 좻 or at least they do not have enough to spend it on cinema, a concert or a pizza in downtown. I hope it does not sound materialistic or somehow snobbish if I say that ‥a limitation of free time activities because of financial constraints… can sometimes also be a challenge for a friendship.
The confrontation with real poverty has a different face, of course. First of all, I guess I should mention the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in slum areas. This means poor huts made of sheet metal or clay without running water and often without electricity, huts in which up to eight people or more cram together on a few square metres. On top of that you find terrible public toilets, piles of garbage, broken or missing sewages, high rates of diseases like TB or HIV/AIDS as well as a frighteningly large number of unemployed. Adding on that is a remarkable number of children who spend their days in the streets: many of them shabby, dirty, shockingly young and 좻 which I find most difficult to bear 좻 addicted to glue they sniff or other kinds of drugs. In many cases it seems that there is no one who is responsible for them or even cares: a picture of poverty which is not restricted to slums any longer but which can be found and openly seen in each city centre of a middle-sized Kenyan city. A challenge that results from the wide-spread poverty for me personally is that I am constantly addressed and asked whether I can support or sponsor an individual or some project 좻 whether by total strangers or by good friends. The most common request here is the need for school fees for school-going children 좻 although officially Kenya now has ¨free primary education〃(4). The most difficult question of all for me 좻 because of my own limited financial means 좻 is: ¨who do I give something to, who don…t I?〃 How can you possibly answer this question well and right? Perhaps the most embarrassing thing about the misery and suffering caused by poverty, though, is how quickly one can get used to them when confronted with them every day. Who knows 좻 maybe this is necessary, however, for one…s own ‥emotional survival….

As for my project 좻 situated in the slum area of Mathare Valley and meant for the rehabilitation, reintegration and school sponsorship of street boys: I am convinced that it is a good and worthy thing to support. For every child who does not (as described above) spend his or her time in the streets is a chance 좻 even though no guarantee 좻 of an independent and ‥normal… life. Here I believe in the Jewish Talmud: ¨Who saves one life, saves an entire world〃. That rehabilitation in the centre is not always successful is shown by cases of drop-out or children who refuse to go back to school or who 좻 once at school 좻 show poor attendance and little effort. Such cases are there, of course, and they are always a disappointment for the staff. It is obvious, however, that these cases should not and do not keep us from recruiting new boys to the centre and trying to convince them of the benefit of our programme as well as the importance of school education. One difficulty (among others) arising with this kind of ¨recruitment〃(5) and regularly leading to discussions among the staff are questions like: which are the ‥genuine… cases, the real street children? And which children are ‥just… poor? Neglected by their parents? Which children do really need rehabilitation? And which boys do ‥only… need a sponsor to take them (back) to school? I don…t dare to answer these questions. But at least I have learnt that there are two groups of street children: there are those children who would typically be called ‥street children… 좻 they really do not have any guardians around, might be total orphans and do live and sleep in the streets. Beside them you have the larger number of those children who have one parent or another relative with whom they stay somewhere but who very often do not care for them responsibly and do not send them to school either. These children therefore spend their days in the streets, collect small items like scrap metals, scrap plastic or others in order to sell them for some little money, with which they either support their families or buy themselves food, glue or illegal video screenings in doubtable places. Both groups come together in the St. Benedict…s Children Programme. One aspect of this our project which I find somehow problematic is the fact that without donors from Germany it would probably not survive 좻 so what about the ideal of development work to help people to help themselves and to avoid dependency? Maybe an answer to this urging question can be that the project through its support tries to provide a kind of ¨take-off〃 for Kenya…s next generation 좻 hopefully with a visible positive outcome.

My tasks in the centre are various 좻 despite two major obstacles: one of them is my limited knowledge about Kenyan culture, the life and ‥rules… of the slum; the other one 좻 which is more weighty and for me as a linguist even harder to accept 좻 is my poor knowledge of the local and beautiful language Kiswahili. However, what I am trying to give to the boys and the centre nonetheless: I help with the informal teaching in English, mathematics or geography 좻 for me easiest with the bigger boys who understand English; I play with the boys, try to come up with ideas for new games or sing some songs together with them; with the help of my colleagues who translate for me I can also conduct some talks (e.g. on children…s rights) or ¨catechism〃(6); when we have staff meetings or discussions I try to give my input and ‥German perspective…; I also try to stay in good contact with the German doctors who examine and treat our boys, provide us with some medicine or dressing equipment or allow our children to jump the extremely long queue of patients좰; I give answers to the boys… questions ¨How is ABC in your country?〃 좻 and finally I like to make some small ‥extras… possible: whether this is a bread with Nutella (chocolate nut cream) for breakfast, a couple of Disney films on DVD, the hide and search for German chocolate Easter eggs or a small trip for the boys which otherwise would not have been in the budget.

A typical day in our street children centre could look more or less like this: the boys arrive in the centre around 8am, wash the dust (or during rain season: the mud!) of the slum off their feet and shoes and brush their teeth. After that we all assemble in the dining hall to sing songs, tell stories, read from the Bible and pray. Around 9am there is breakfast, i.e. for the boys ¨uji〃, in Kenyan English ¨porridge〃, a kind of liquid made of maize flour. After breakfast the boys are divided into three age groups and lessons in English, mathematics, Kiswahili, geography or other subjects are conducted before there is another activity according to the day of the week: football, catechism, staff meeting or washday for the children…s clothes (they wash themselves, of course!). Before lunch the boys take a shower while after food we have a break for indoor games etc. At around 2pm we start our afternoon programme, which could be a talk on HIV, drugs, child abuse or life on the street, could be clubs like for example dancing, drama or gardening, so-called ¨creativity〃 좻 i.e. work with paper, beads, wool or just drawing 좻, ¨entertainment〃 (children…s movies or documentaries) or at times a visit to the swimming pool. In between or during all these activities some of the social workers conduct home visits or school visits for some of the boys or try to answer the questions and sorrows of a visiting parent or guardian. At around 4pm the day comes to an end with a closing prayer in the inner courtyard. Then the boys run through the door with a ¨kesho〃 (tomorrow) or ¨tutaonana〃 (we will meet) on their lips.

Was I to draw a conclusion from all my experiences so far, it would probably sound pretty much like this: for me it is still difficult if not impossible to form an opinion on this city or this country, to say whether I love them and whether they create in me the famous ¨Africa-virus〃(7). What I can say, though, is that this place touches me, makes me think, leaves me with tasks and strikes many different cords with my heart 좻 almost every day. And if it does not create a ‥virus…, then it creates at least something that an acquainted sister once so truly called ¨a heart for Africa〃.

Notes:

(1) ¨Matatus〃 are 14-seat-Nissans, wildly coloured and mostly ‥equipped… with extremely loud music, which are the public transport means number 1.
(2) ¨Mzungu〃 stands for ‥white person… or ‥European… 좻 but Americans are Mzungus, too 꺔. Nowadays tourist shops even sell Mzungu T-shirts좰
(3) ¨up-country〃 is more or less everything outside Nairobi. Practically each Kenyan 좻 even if he or she lives in Nairobi 좻 has got a family or relatives somewhere up-country.
(4) ¨free primary education〃: technically, primary education should be free of charge. However, parents have to provide uniforms, books, money for food and other things.
(5) ¨recruitment〃 is that process when our social workers go out to the streets and address boys who do not go to school, who might be homeless, look dirty and shabby and collect small items for sale. They try to convince those boys to come to the centre, try our programme for a few days so that after that they can decide freely whether they want to stay or not.
(6) ¨catechism〃 is a weekly unit where by using a Bible passage or a story from the children…s Bible we try to show the boys parallels between the stories and their own lives, thus encouraging them and giving them hope and trust in God and themselves.
(7) German native speakers use the term ¨Africa-virus〃 to refer to a person who has fallen in love with Africa, who always wants to go back there and maybe even stay there for good.

Judith Froehlich (26.05.2009)

REPORT OF JANUARY 2004

Children in the Centre.

Rehabilitation Programme for 2004; 6 children were regular for rehabilitation in the month of January. 1 child, Emmanuel Ambok was not regular since he has an older brother who was arrested by the police and was put in jail. He has been following this case. This year for the period when we are being hosted at St. Maurus Centre, we decided in a staff meeting to take in only 10 children. This is due to the prevailing uncertainties on the reliability of a room that are still on.

We also decided to take in a case of a child who is enrolled in a nearby school and attend classes in the afternoon session. In the morning they moves around with some of our children collecting things to sell. We had one such case last year too. Both cases are enrolled in an informal school run by the Missionary Sisters of Charity who have a Convent in Huruma, a neighbouring slum.
18 children from the group that was rehabilitated last year were to join formal learning institutions this year. Most of the children reported late in the second week of school. However, 2 children, Alan Oriaro and John Mureithi have not yet been admitted into various schools. Alan had been very sick and is now slowly recovering. John is just at home; he does not come to the Centre anymore.
George Sabatia who has been in the Centre for rehabilitation for the past 5 years has now accepted to go for vocational training in carpentry. He has gone back to where he had been placed for the same course in the year 2000. Previously he and been placed and he dropped out after few weeks. In 2002 he was taken to Don Bosco, a rehabilitation programme which accommodates older boys and offers them training too. He also ran away from this place after few weeks. Last year he had been allowed to the Centre again only for 2 days every week. He had already been in the Centre for long under the rehabilitation programme, he was much older than the other children were. Besides this, he had made up his mind to reform from sniffing glue and also wanted to do something constructive in his life. His change is remarkable; therefore he has been given a chance although he is being supervised to really know whether he can fully enrol for the course.
6 of the older boys some of whom completed their different levels of learning are assisting in casual works at the construction site for the new Centre. They are very happy about this since they are able to get some pocket money at the end of the week. These boys are; James Mbugua- He is very grateful for this since he completed high school and was having problems with food and accommodation. He is now able to cook his own food and pay rent for the house he lives in. The others are Robert Muiruri, Steven Mwenye and Dickson Wanyoike who completed class 8 and awaiting to go to high school some time in February. Calvin and Fredrick Otieno also go to the site during weekends since during the week they are in vocational training and primary school respectively.

School-going children; 26 children have been regular for lunch at St. Maurus Centre.

8 children were referred to Baraka Medical Centre for medical attention.

Activities for the month of January 2004.

This year things were a little better than they were last year. We managed to get a room at St. Maurus Centre, the hall that we used for the activities we had with the children. We were able to play indoor games with them. Some days they had classes for writing and drawing. They went for out door games, football, running and swimming.

We were able to sort out the issue about the toilet facilities. We repaired the once that our children were said to have damaged and are now allowed to share this with the Special School for the Mentally Handicapped. We also agreed with them on the modalities of cleanliness, which we do in alternative weeks. The children are very comfortable with this arrangement. They are now able to bring their clothes once every week for washing.

A space for bathing was given to us so we put up a temporary structure for this. Now the children are able to bath each day.

There was a meeting with the parents who will be doing the cooking this year. They came up with a calendar showing the months which each of them will cook. However, from the experience of the mother who cooked last December 2003, they are requesting for an additional cook during the school holidays. The children have increased and the workload is too much for one cook during these times. Last December we had over 100 children coming for lunch. The mother had to ask the girls who were around to assist her each day, other days the boys assisted. These children can only do alittle some days. They tend to avoid coming to the Centre when they are always called upon to assist in the kitchen.

The staff had a meeting to make the plans for the activities to undertake with the children in the year 2004. Dan and Tobias travelled to Marsabit to check out on the schools there for placement of children who would need to go to such places. Home visits for some of the new children were done. We have also been able to liase with COCESCI, an umbrella organisation for programmes dealing with street children, so that we may be included in their programme this year. This year they will be working on HIV/AIDS, whereby they offer the necessary training for both staff and children in the programmes they work with and the community as a whole if it is the need of the programme at the time. This is a felt need in our programme especially since we have children whose parents are either affected or have died because of such a pandemic. It would therefore be good if we are all equipped with the vital information that we need to deal with such families.

Problems.
We have tried to sort out the issue with the room for the children at St. Maurus Centre. There are some few problems such as; we are not allowed to have our own key into the hall or the washrooms. Sometimes when the other programmes are not in of which they do not inform us, they lock up all the facilities and we are left out.

The arrangement we had with the catechist was that he would leave us the keys in the house of one of the tenets there incase he comes in late or he is absent. Some days he would leave the keys for us, while other days he would not.

Sometimes he just gives a lame excuse not to open the hall for us. For instance, one day he told us the hall has been booked by the youth group who want to clean it up and hold prayers. Unfortunately, we were there the whole day outside and we saw no one using the hall until evening when we had to leave for home.

We have not been able to arrange for a meeting with the Board of Directors, we had proposed a date but this coincided with the funeral arrangements for the Late Fr. Jean Marie OSB.

Plans for the month of February 2004.

The Kenya Sports Association wants to encourage children from the slums to learn how to swim. We intent to enrol the children for the swimming lessons.

They will begin religious classes, which is offered once every week by a catechist from the parish. However, for this they will have to go to a different venue from St. Maurus Centre. As explained in the problems above, the reliability of the venue is not guaranteed.

We are also planning to take them to see the wild animals at the National Park.

We will try to schedule a meeting with the Board of Directors.

(01.03.2004)

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